Boston Project interviewer slams Sinn Fein president

An interviewer for the Boston tapes project has hit out at Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams for criticising the work as “an entirely bogus, shoddy and self-serving effort by those involved”.

Yesterday, former IRA man turned academic Anthony McIntyre said: “The Belfast Project was an important and valuable contribution to Irish history, one that society will be better for having rather than denied.”

He added that US federal judge William Young, who studied the contents of the Boston College archives, said that “it was a bona fide academic exercise of considerable intellectual merit”.

Mr McIntyre continued: “In contrast, Mr Adams’ disavowal of his central role in the direction of the IRA campaign is lacking in anything that would remotely resemble intellectual merit or honesty. His narrative has been both self-serving and bogus.”

Last weekend, 77-year-old Ivor Bell appeared at Belfast Magistrates’ Court charged with IRA membership and aiding and abetting the murder of Jean McConville.

On Monday, Mr Adams, who vehemently denies being involved in the McConville abduction in 1972, said: “If the PSNI wish to talk to me on this matter, I am available to meet them.”